This is going to sound so dumb and fan-girly, but I actually got crazy-excited when I discovered this interview! I was giddy because YAY a new Benedict Cumberbatch interview, but also because we’re getting closer to the premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness and I can’t wait for Cumby’s full-blown media tour. I hope he does a lot of press in America. PLEASE?! Is it weird that I want him to get a big magazine cover for June too? Maybe Vanity Fair is too much to hope for, but maybe GQ, Details or Esquire? PLEASE? Anyway, you can read Cumby’s LOOOOONG-ass Mail On Sunday/Event interview here, and here are some highlights (for the truly ‘Batched, I would suggest reading the whole thing).
On his relatively new fame: ‘I find the level of scrutiny dulling as well as in your face and aggressive – some days I wear it lightly and other days I’m very aware of it.’
Being a posh kid: ‘Someone will always hate what I say. There’s always going to be somebody spitting blood about my wooden-faced, toffee-named, crappy acting. I’ve never denied my upbringing. Talking about class terrifies me. There is no way of winning. You either come across as being arrogant and ungrateful if you complain about it, or being snooty and over-privileged if you bathe in it. They say I should move to America if I don’t like the hassle. But I love London. Culturally it’s where my heart and soul are, as well as my roots. I get the variety of work here that any actor in America would die for.’
On 7/7/05 (the day of the London bombings), he was on a bus to west London: ‘Everyone on my bus was in a state of panic. They had heard about the bomb on the other bus across London in Tavistock Square and started running over each other. There were kids, there were women, it was a real fight to get them down the stairs. I staggered out into the street. I was on my way to help a friend with a workshop at the Young Vic theatre and I couldn’t get through to him. The phones were jammed. Everyone around me was also talking about massive explosions on the Underground.’
He was carjacked in South Africa and nearly shot: ‘I had this realisation that it doesn’t matter how loved you are in your life, you die on your own… I’ve still got a scar’ – he points to a tiny white mark on his inner wrist, next to his watch – ‘where I was tied up. It was terrifying. The next morning I woke up as a free man with the sun on my face and I cried. I thought I’d never feel its warmth again.’
The issue of class in America: “No one minds so much over there. It’s rather about how good you are at your job.”
His parents: ‘I was desperately proud of my parents for sending me to Harrow. It was a huge stretch for them. They were working actors who never knew when the next pay day might come. My parents wanted the best for me. I wasn’t sent to the school my dad went to. I’m not a hereditary peer. One of the best things about being an actor is that it’s a meritocracy. People have tried to pull together a pattern because Tom Hiddleston, Eddie Redmayne and Damian Lewis and I were all privately educated. But James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Tom Hardy weren’t and they’re equally talented. It’s just lazy to try and create a private-school elite. I’m definitely middle class, I think. I know others would argue, but I’m not upper class. Upper class to me means you are either born into wealth or you’re Royalty.’ A pause. ‘OK, maybe I’m upper-middle class.’
He loved his elite schooling: ‘My prep school was heaven. It was like being in an extended holiday camp full of baby brothers. Suddenly I had this family of boys. It was a riot. I had so much fun. My parents saw I was happy, so I went off to board at Harrow.’
His England: ‘I flew back from Tokyo, via Los Angeles, yesterday and I got a huge kick from flying underneath the clouds and seeing my England. I felt so happy. It was the most beautiful wintery landscape, dusted with frost. Within the same field of vision as a giant retail park was a Norman church and some huge pile surrounded by woods and a driveway. The mundane and the majestic, the old with the new. I’m lucky; I can live here and work in the States. I can just pack a bag and go.’
Was he naughty when he was younger? ‘Of course I was naughty! Every kid is naughty. I got into all sorts of trouble as a kid by pushing boundaries. Not illegal trouble, but mucking about. No more than anyone else, though. I wasn’t a bully, nor was I desperate for attention. I had a problem focusing. I probably had Attention Deficit Disorder, or something on the border of it. I was always performing, doing silly voices. The teachers realised I could go one of two ways: be creative or destructive. I was made a prefect and it calmed me down. I realised I was being respected and I needed to return that respect.’
Being an only child, wanting a family: ‘I was happy as an only child, but I’ve always wanted to be part of a bigger family. I would love to have children,’ he booms. ‘Everyone wants to know when I’m going to settle down and who is going to be Mrs Cumberbatch. I can’t wait to do an interview like this and just talk about my child. My stepsister – my mother’s daughter from her first marriage – had a kid when I was about 11. I thought, “Wow, this is incredible, they come in much smaller sizes!” I was only used to my band of brothers at prep school. I was always the one at parties who looked after the younger children. I really enjoyed it. I became a godfather to a family friend, Emma Vansittart, when I was about 14 or 15. Emma in turn had been a sort of godmother figure to me. In fact, she was my first crush.’
The Mail piece is extensive and it’s not poorly written at all. They compare him to Tilda Swinton and there are some charming details, like the interviewer overhearing Benedict being yelled at by his mom, and Benedict profusely thanking his cab driver and generally just being lovely. Sigh… you know, I’m an only child too. That’s something Benedict and I will talk about. When we’re boning.
Photos courtesy of Event, Flix.
This is a Cumby post worth getting shanked over. He’s SO lovely. I’m particularly hot for the stern bank manager look.
Of course, the DM being the DM, later reduced the article to this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2315853/Im-posh-kid-insists-toffee-named-Benedict-Cumberbatch.html
LOL at “stern bank manager!” So true. I can just picture him saying in a sexy, suggestive Cumby voice saying -“So, are you here for a deposit or withdrawal?” And then I say “both” and jump at him across his big, hard . . . banker’s desk.
Okay, stopping the fantasizing now :).
A Sunday shout-out to you ladies, and of course Eve, who I know I will always find on the Cumby posts! 🙂
What’s he hiding behind his back? A big fat ledger that he’ll spank me with later because I’ve been a very bad teller – forgetting to give little kids their lollipops when they come up to the window with their moms…
Oh wait, am I supposed to save the spanking fantasies for Hiddleston threads?
Oh. Maah. GAWD.
T.Fanty, Original Bella, I am right there with you ladies. I didn’t expect such an overwhelming Sunday swoon when I woke up this morning (sorry, lovely hubs), so I must thank Kaiser and T.Fanty for the articles. I suck up any drop of Cumby info like a stalker, err, I mean a sponge.
I will gladly take his wooden- faced (not), toffee-named (well maybe), baby-lusting (Cumby-karmabiatch spawn highly desired) ANY time. Like, right now would be good. Sigh.
*swivels head looking for Eve. Have no desire to get shanked*
*swivels head looking for Eve. Have no desire to get shanked*
Too late!
Eve!!!!! What’s shakin’, homegirl??
Girl, you know I was just playing about Cumby! He’s just SO handsome and that voice and that wavy, beautiful Cumber-hair, I needed to run my fingers through it, ya know?
*drops purse and starts sprinting away from Eve*
Run, Karmasabitch!, run!
😀
Yesterday, The Sun also described him as “thinking woman’s crumpet,” a phrase that has made me so unimaginably happy.
He also won the hottest man in Britain poll 🙂
I tell you, we are creati g the verbiage here on CB! I’m all about thinking, crumpets, and…. Other things.
Someone just told me that’s supposed to be a Joan Bakewell parallel. Um, okay.
It’s an old, sexist phrase. They used to call pretty, smart women the thinking man’s crumpet. I haven’t heard it for years.
Haha, the person who told me that is this old Brit expat who drinks with us. I have to google half the things he references.
He’s a great interview material.
Mmm, lovely long article!
But I do think it’s weird that he doesn’t realize that his mother’s daughter from a previous marriage is actually his half-sister and not his stepsister, which means he’s not an only child.
I have two older half-sisters but they were grown and out of the house by the time I came around, and since I was raised as an only child, I tend to think of myself in those terms. That might be how he meant it too.
@insomniac
Yes, it does sound like there’s quite an age gap between him and his sister so she probably did move out when he was very young, essentially leaving him to grow up an “only” child.
But I still think it’s odd that he refers to his half-sister as a stepsister! (In his shoes, I would just call her my sister, without adding any additional caveats.)
Perhaps that’s how it’s referred to in the UK?
@Turtle Dove
No, that’s definitely not it. At least not according to my dad, who’s from the UK and spent the first 20+ years of his life there.
Maybe it was just a slip of the tongue, but it still seems like an odd mistake to make. Almost like he’s emotionally distancing himself from that part of his family.
I have a younger brother who’s technically a half-brother — I’m from our mother’s first marriage, he’s from her second — but I never refer to him as such. He’s just my brother, full stop.
There’s 11 years between us, so I moved out when he was only six and I guess both of us probably felt a bit like only children growing up. That said, I still very much consider him family and the age gap matters less the older we get.
Nope, we Brits also distinguish step siblings from half siblings. Sending him to Harrow was clearly a waste of good money if after all this time he hasnt figured out that she is not his step sister.
And does he really think that hes in the same league as Fassbender, McAvoy and Hardy. What does he mean ..”equally talented”. Boy, you are not even in the same postal code talentwise. Either sit down or go away Cumby.
I cant wait for the fixation with him to be over.
I have never liked the whole “half brother, half sister thing” or even step brother/stepsister. To me, they’re your siblings, that can’t/shouldn’t be taken apart by death or divorce.
In my family, we are “separated” by three different biological fathers…I have not, nor has my mom ever said to us that we were half siblings, though we technically are. I didn’t realize for years that we even had different fathers. But I hate the idea of separating the kids…I hate it. They’re your family, no matter if you’re blood or not. I have a few relatives who aren’t actually related to me, but are the “half brother/sister” of a cousin, and who are thought of as “full blooded” cousins, nothing less.
I know it doesn’t technically have to do anything with the post, but where I live a lot of people put stock into that. I don’t understand why there even has to be a distinction. I wouldn’t feel good if my 25 year old sister went around introducing me as her half sister, and my nephew as his half aunt.
My friend who is English has a half-brother and a half-sister and they are older than him by 10-20+ years. I never heard him refer to them as half siblings tho, only sister and brother. Which is why this is… Weird. Same thing with my other friend, she has quite a few half siblings and doesn’t even refer to them as such, just brothers and sisters.
I assumed he used “step-sister” because she was the child of his mother’s first husband from the first husband’s prior marriage. So his mother’s step-daughter from her first marriage had a child when BC was 11.
Might have been a mistake by the journalist or the editor.
He looks positively swoon worthy in that Star Trek poster.
Swoon! I ADORE him.
*jumps up and down fan-girling*
Every time I read an interview by him, I hear it in his voice. Anyone else have that? Gah… that voice, accent…
Cumby gives such a nice interview. He walks a good balance between pride in his upbringing and not appearing full of himself.
I assume this is an interview cobbled together from past interviews because none of this is news-he’s said all of this numerous times before, including the tired moaning about being perceived as being too posh.
I love him, but I hope to god he gets a publicist for the next round of press for Trek or he’s going to be eaten alive.
He’s so unfortunate looking- like a ferret. I know horrible, but still, am I the only one who doesn’t find him attractive? And sometimes he comes off as somewhat arrogant. He seems to have loads of female fans so he must be doing something right.
No, I feel the same way.
I feel the same way. I’ll probably see him act for the first time in Star Trek but I don’t find him attractive.
No, you’re right he’s unfortunate looking.
No, I don’t find him attractive at all either. And I agree about the arrogant thing too.
Yes, he is certainly ferret-like.
Unattractive. A lollipop head on a puny body. And kind of douchey going by this interview
Agree. I think he looks like Abraham Lincoln in the first picture…
Fantastic actor. Thank God, he’s not just a talentless pretty face. I’m so fed up with “celebrities” who should be models and not actors. Keep up the good work, Ben.
Am I the only one this guy does nothing for?? Oh well, more for the rest of you.
Ha!We wrote our comments around the same time. Yes, he is just not attractive to me at all!He does nothing for me too.
Yeah, and he sounds like kind of a tool.
Why does it seem like 75% of all Cumby articles contain something about social class and something about his future family/children?
Because in the press tours he did last summer, that’s pretty much ALL he talked about and they keep re-hashing it. Hopefully when he starts doing press for Trek, everyone will have moved on to different topics.
Yeah the UK press has its fixation. Seems an even wiser choice now to pair him up with Chris Pine for the Graham Norton show, we might actually get something different.
I held strong to the opinion that Benedict Cumberbatch looks like an unattractive lizard I would not poke with a metre long stick but…now, I understand some of the hype!
So he describes James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Tom Hardy as “equally talented” though they did not, like himself, Redmayne, Damien Lewis, etc. go to private schools.
How generous of him to remind readers of his more gentle upbringing. Why does he always come off as arrogant and obnoxious?
He had a private school education and was brought up in the British upper-middle class. It’s a part of who he is. And I guess, he may come off obnoxious and arrogant. But don’t you think he has the right to be arrogant and obnoxious in a way? It’s his privilege and he’s subconsciously lauding the fact that his parents supported him in that way.
In regards to comparing himself et al. to James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Tom Hardy, I think he meant that upbringing doesn’t matter where talent is concerned.
No, he really doesn’t-no one should. In his defense, I think it’s more a lack of awareness of how he’s coming across rather than that he really IS arrogant and obnoxious, but still-no one should let being a fan get in the way of calling someone out for being a dick. We’re not Justin Bieber fans.
I’m not a fan of his.
There’s nothing arrogant or obnoxious about what he said…everyone’s reading into it too much. Should everyone who’s had a privileged background be told they’re a dick for saying that they’ve had a privileged background? No.
He reminds me of the posh kids I went to uni with. Complete lack of self-awareness. It’s always ‘dahling you should come up to my house, and we can row on the lovely lake on the estate’ or ‘dahling I just had the best weekend eva! Had a spot of shoppin in New York with daddy and we jetted off on his company jet’ or dahling you should come up to our winter house in France, skiing is lovely this time of year
And then when you tell them that they are so posh and high class, they go on the defense, ‘but I’m not! Honest! My parents really worked hard or we don’t have a lot of money! Etc’.
Tom Hardy went to private school actually. He’s possibly more posh than Cumberbatch, he just doesn’t come off that way
Errr, I actually read it as him calling out the press for pointing out his upbringing vs McAvoy,Hardy, et al.
(disclaimer – I’m not a massive fangirl of his, I promise).
He ruined the Sherlock Holmes series. When it was time for the revelation as to how Sherlock solved the mysteries he mumbled his words and ran his lines together so the answers were unintelligible. Part of the joy of watching Holmes is admiring his cleverness. This was completely lost. I felt robbed.
Best Sherlock Holmes ever.
Look, I love the Cumberbatch as much as the next lady, but if these quotes came from Hiddleston y’all would be tearing him to pieces. Particularly the “my England” comment and his unabashed love of his elite schooling and privileged upbringing.
Exactly! I guess I’m a bad stan, because if someone sounds like an ass, I’m going to call him an ass even if I am a fan. Like I said above, I think it is more him being spectacularly unaware of how whiny he sounds rather than him being a jerk, but honestly-everyone needs to stop with with the questions about his schooling-it’s so tired. That’s why I think they put this together with interviews from last summer-there’s new stuff to talk about.
Alexandra says:
April 28, 2013 at 11:45 am
Look, I love the Cumberbatch as much as the next lady, but if these quotes came from Hiddleston y’all would be tearing him to pieces. Particularly the “my England” comment and his unabashed love of his elite schooling and privileged upbringing.
Exactly.
I like Cumberbatch as an actor and I think he will do well in Star Trek, but I am not rabid over him. It’s like he doesn’t like the side effects of fame – well boohoo too bad. On the other hand, he likely grew up with a lot of taunting over his looks and name. He isn’t ugly, he is just exotic and is definitely an acquired taste.
I’d not kick him out of bed if I had the chance… but given my druthers, there will be no one before teH Hiddles.
The British class system is so weird and f’ed up.
And now that I’ve read spoilers for Star Trek, Benelizard and JJ Abrams can go to hell for continuing to perpetuate whitewashing in media.
Ugh does that mean Cumby is actually playing the one character that everyone assumed he was?
I heard back last summer that he was going to play that character. I didn’t know it was supposed to be a secret.
I don’t get the bafflement nor the hate about it either. The original while yes he was ‘foreign’ there was nothing anywhere that said what the character HAS to be… That was simply a result of casting and the fact that for some reason Rodenberry really like that name. (It is used later for Data’s creator as well)
*shrug*
I don’t see a reason for the hate either. If we’re talking about who I think we’re talking about (do we really have to do this like he who shall not be named?), then how can we forget that the “ethnic” role was originally played by an actor from the other side of the planet. So would any other actor, as long as he was a bit more brown, have sufficed?
Yeah, I get that it’s a bit of stretch, but still, I’d give it a chance. Considering the engineering that went into said character (and the fact that that part of the world actually does have a Caucasian strain), there might be an iota of something to build on there.
All that being said, I don’t think it’s him. And I’m really hoping it’s not him.
I’ve been waiting for someone to say they think it’s white-washing, so that they can explain it to me.
Benedict is Caucasian, the original Khan was Caucasian (Spanish decent, born in Mexico, identified as Hispanic) and the original character was Caucasian (Indian Sikh). So, they’re all white … I don’t see how white-washing applies.
Admittedly, “Caucasian” does cover lots of different ethnicities. And it’s dodgy to have a Chinese actor playing a Japanese character: just because they’re both Asian, they’re not the same.
But if we’re discriminating between different ethnicities, should Khan be played by a Spaniard, by a Hispanic, or by a Sikh?
I lean towards saying he should be Sikh, but I doubt there’s many Sikh actors, so the closest you could probably get would be a non-Sikh Indian. Which still leaves you with a miss-cast ethnicity.
*shrug*
What could Hollywood do with that mess, except throw ethnicity out the window and just cast the best actor they could find?
Totally agree with your take on the whole thing.
I really like this guy, his acting and his beautiful-ugly face. His sexiness is harder to detect, to me he’s still a skinny pasty kid.(But I don’t find British guys sexy anyway.)
This shtick though, I’m posh, don’t hate me, is getting old.You’re an actor, and if you don’t want to be boxed in a specific role set, get an effing accent. Damien Lewis did it, and I think he’s somehow bluer-blooded than Benedict.
Please,classicism is everywhere. If he moved to L.A, he’d encounter the same thing there.
Did he actually grow up privileged or are people assuming he did because of his accent?
His upbringing didn’t sound very posh to me. He just went to a posh school, which I read that his grandmother paid for.
He has said that his parents were both actors, never knew when their next job might be, & they lived in a regular neighborhood (I don’t know which one.)
I think he said in an interview that he always had jobs in the summers. Didn’t sound like he spent his off time lounging by the pool.
If anyone thinks we don’t have a class system in the U.S.—well that’s just silly. Beverly Hills High School? Those kids are growing up posh.
Exactly true…why else would we (not actually counting myself, as I don’t have any kids)Americans be so obsessed about living in the “right” school district or paying through the nose for XYZ Country Day School, and then going crazy trying to get kids into the right college and the right fraternity/sorority. I’m exhausted even just thinking about it…I don’t know how you parents do it…
@Boudicca,
Perfect example. I recall the movie Baby Boom (Diane Keaton) having a very funny sequence about exactly this situation. Young mothers at the playground were apoplectic about their babies not getting accepted in to the “proper” day care. If they didn’t get into the right hoity toity day care & pre-school, they would have to go to an “ordinary” kindergarten, & as a result would never get into an Ivy League University!
Their entire lives were scripted & doomed at the age of 2. Sigh.
Viola! American class system!
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/no-rich-child-left-behind/?smid=tw-share
I’m raising the Fantlings in manhattan, and here, your socio-economic class is set by the age of 3. It’s terrifying.
I think classism and economic privilege is much worse and much more insidious in the US.
We don’t call it “class,” and it has little to do with who your parents are and much more to do with how much money you have– not how good you are at your job for heaven’s sake– and the rich get rich and the poor stay poor, the dice are loaded, and the track you a on is established frighteningly early. We have never had income disparity this extreme since the gilded age.
I think it is a good sign that those are “posh” in Britain get it sticking their faces– this shows that at least on some level they have no choice but to be aware that there is an issue, even if they choose to do nothing about it and keep their heads in the sand. In the US, it is very easy to cocoon yourself in a certain community and be completely oblivious. It is encouraged, and people are perfectly happy to let you believe that you earned all that privilege.
Ivy League universities all have admission policies that favor the sons and daughters of alumni– that is not a trivial edge. Something like this would never fly at Oxbridge.
I don’t actually believe Cumby is as rigidly posh as, say, Hiddleston, who is about as posh as posh comes.
This doesn’t mean I won’t call him on his crap, but one reason I am a tad easier on him than I am on Hiddles is that, unlike TommyAnna, he is not having his full time publicist promote this image that he is some kind of Disney Prince of kindness and awareness, and he seems to be at least somewhat aware that there are real issues here. And he doesn’t hump my leg. That goes a long way, believe me.
@Fanty,
Thank you Fanty, for pointing us to that article. I’m in the middle of it now & it’s already giving me chills.
@Crumpets
Your comments are true, & `insidious’ is the perfect word for this ugly state of things.
Everyone ought to be worried about this, whether they have kids in school or not. I don’t, but it scares the hell out of me to think where this is going.
Suddenly I just thought of Miss Privileged Self-Obsessed Snot, who wrote that “sorority sister e-mail” scolding her sisters for not being drunk & awesome enough, I guess. Does anyone doubt that she came from privilege? No one will convince me that she wasn’t coddled & indulged within an inch of her life, & that this is how you create a child who is oblivious to anyone who is not just like themselves.
@T.Fanty It makes me think about the successful immigrant couple I sat next to on a plane a couple of weeks ago, who were returning from a trip to the east coast to see their daughter who is in boarding school, combined with college campus visits for their eldest daughter. It turned out that they were estimating they will have spent half a million on costs related to the two girls’ education, by the time they’re done. I also have friends who live in an upper-middle to upper class suburb, and the Principal of their high school insists on a resume from every incoming freshman. I can’t even imagine doing that when I was 14, but after reading this piece, I see that’s it’s just another way that the kids will have an extra step on other children.
C&C (et al): Oxbridge is still a little bit like that – it’s a given that the public schoolboys are heading there. Cumby even talked about it in one interview – that he “chose” not to follow the Oxbridge route. The implication was that the door was open to him should he had required. That’s the sense of entitlement that privilege brings, and while on one hand, I have no problem with people striving to be the best they can, it continues to produce a class that is politically and socio-economically powerful, and horrifically out of touch with the real experiences of people living in the UK and the US.
And when this class system (because that’s what it is) is rooted in education, it’s only going to get stronger, because it’s power structure is based on our need to protect our children. I know that the system is wrong, and I 100% believe that education is the key to an equal society and is a basic human right. However, I’m not about to compromise the Fantlings’ lives for MY principle. – no parent would. The system has parents over a barrel, and by the time we can reach the kids who most need education, chances are, the lack of time or educational resources has already closed that door.
Escaped Covent, in England, the social class is not necessarily linked to wealth. For instance, you can be wealthy, but you would not be considered ‘posh’. You can be not very wealthy, but you would be considered posh. People are mostly defined by families (you can usually tell who the posh families are if they have several last names), education, and estates.
It’s not the same in the US where if you get lucky and become very wealthy, you are considered part of the rich elite.
Having glanced at Cumberbatch’s wikipedia page, he definately sounds posh (his great grandfather was British Consul General in Turkey, and his grandfather was an officer and part of the high society in London). Both his parents come from posh backgrounds, so yes, Cumberbatch, own it, you are a posh boy!
@tfantling: I stand corrected then. Obviously this flies very much at Oxbridge– and flies very much over here, although we call it “legacy admission.” Ruth Simmons President of Brown University was asked if legacy admissions would everend at Brown. She reied “No. I have grandchildren.” That says it all.
The desire to create advantages for your children is strong, and yet we would all benefit from more equality. I wish we could be more like Finland, which made equality it’s priority in education and ended up with one if theist successful educational systems in the world. But this would be a huge overhaul in England or the US.
Oh heavens, is Cumby going to be one of those elites who likes to pretend he is not elite? Like those hipster trust fund kids in Brooklyn who shop at thrift stores after they cash their dividend checks? That is sooooooo elite.
@ C&C: I kind of hope so, because it’s the only way I can imagine him justifying many of his sartorial choices. I need to believe there’s an ideology behind that fox t-shirt and the grey cardigan that he seems to think goes with everything.
Can you imagine how AMAZING it would be if cumby and swinton started boning? HOT
Wow, talk about the hottest alien couple ever!
@Kaiser: I am not trying to create a controversy, but …”you know, I’m an only child too. That’s something Benedict and I will talk about.” Ain’t gonna happen, Kaiser. If you two had CBkids, it means your kids would be the ONLY CBgrandchildren and they would have no aunties or uncles…
he looks like a reptile and i hate his bitchy attitude.
Eve will love you for that, ha!
You’re right about that!
I’m not crazy about these recently “converted” cumberbitches.
Teenagers are really boring with their “pretty faces” obsession. Lol
I really do like Cumberbatch (actually I loooove him)… but it’s like every interview with him is the same… “I went to a private school, I want to have kids, I’m not snooty,” blah blah blah… can’t these interviewers ask him anything else?
I want to know what his favorite color is. Or just anything other than what I have read 50 times already.
DNW that posh toddy.
*HEAVY sigh…*
*HEAVY sigh…*
*HEAVY sigh…*
*HEAVY sigh…*
*HEAVY sigh…*
I confessed to my husband that I have a crush on Cumby. He took it well. 🙂 And I’m way older than Cumby is. Wow! I’ve never been a cougar before…
My first thought, when I saw this article in my morning feed, was ‘OMG Eve is going to explode!’
My second thought was that Dangit, I will miss out on an EPIC comment thread bc I am traveling this week (hello NYC!).
Then I saw some comments and was totally right. The discussion of the class systems in the US and the UK is particularly good, and I’d love to weigh in but travelly things await so I will just say thanks to @Crumpets, @Fanty, @Convent et al for excellent arguments.
Lastly, re: the interview itself, what jumped out at me was Cumby giving credit to other actors by name. Don’t see that a lot, I thought it was a nice touch. Also, whatever his level of poshness, at least he is comes across self-aware and mindful of of it. And god, when he finally gives that interview about his baby…I am afraid that that might bring down CB in its entirety, if not parts of the whole universe.
Miss you, guys!
Have fun Anna! And yeah, I think you have hot the distinction between Cumby and Hiddles– Cumby is at least a bit more self-aware, which does a bit to tone down the annoying factor.
When is this guy going to land a Mrs. Cumby? He needs to stop dating models if he wants to get serious. Times awasting, my hedgehog!
Hmmm…I am not very curious who the eventual Mrs. Cumby will be (aside from Eve, of course). I honestly cannot even imagine the type…
correction to above: not=now. Based on how he talked about it/her.
Maybe it’s just me and the people I know but I don’t find him ‘posh’ or arrogant at all. Growing up in NYC I’ve seen SO much worse – kids who basically are born to be posh because that’s all their families care about. I think he’s just being realistic like yes he went to a private school but it’s not like it was handed to him. Honestly, most parents obsess over where their kids will go to school which is like what someone else said above, is why people look to buy houses or live within a certain area for a certain school district. I was brought up somewhere in between middle and upper middle class and sent to private school only because my parents wanted what they thought was best for me, and some people consider me snobby and unaware because of my upbringing. After a while you can only defend yourself so much.
Good point. He’s not arrogant at all.
Dani, I totally hear you.
Same here- you cannot be held responsible for how your parents raised you, nor should you be apologetic about it. I’ve encountered that nasty “Oh, she’s a snob” BS all my life. All you can do is the best you can not to be as impervious to change as our parents perhaps were, and to be a good person. To yourself and to all others around you. Period.
Lauli, I don’t find cherishing your happy childhood to be arrogant, either. Cumby is expressing gratitude for what he had, and for his parent’s sacrifices. Which is why I will always be a devoted and proud…
…Cumberbiatch! 😀